FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Fairway Physicians Insurance Company RRG Endorses Medical Justice Services

GREENSBORO, NORTH CAROLINA, August 18, 2010 – Fairway Physicians Insurance Company, RRG today announced an endorsed and strategic relationship with Medical Justice Services, Inc; the leading organization offering patented services to protect physicians’ most valuable assets – their practice and reputation – against frivolous lawsuits, Internet defamation and other medico-legal threats. Under the agreement, Fairway will offer Medical Justice Membership to its insureds under a preferred pricing agreement. Medical Justice’s Programs complement the traditional medical malpractice insurance offered by professional liability carriers.  The agreement will provide Fairway’s policyholders with proven, turnkey services that deliver real-world results such as decreasing malpractice suit rates, holding proponents of meritless lawsuits accountable and preventing Internet defamation.

Medical Justice focuses exclusively on the healthcare industry and has addressed the needs of doctors for over eight years. Medical Justice reports its plan members experience a significant reduction in medical malpractice suits.

“Medical Justice’s services protect physicians from a number of risks they encounter in practicing medicine. Their strategies and programs deter frivolous lawsuits. This partnership supports our pledge to provide the very best benefits for all of our policyholders. Offering Medical Justice to our insureds will be instrumental in preventing many of the aggravating situations that healthcare providers face,” stated Michael Gurvey, M.D., President, Fairway Physicians Insurance Company, RRG.

Dr. Jeffrey Segal, CEO of Medical Justice, notes, “It is exciting to enter into this strategic partnership with Fairway Physicians Insurance Company, a respected medical malpractice liability provider. At Medical Justice, our mission is to aggressively protect the interests of our members within the changing landscape of medical practice. Fairway allows its members to practice medicine with the security of having the right kind of medical liability coverage. By offering Medical Justice Membership, Fairway is also giving its insureds the added peace of mind of protection from frivolous medical malpractice lawsuits, Internet defamation and other medico-legal threats.”

Publication of Research Announced by Medical Justice

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

April 16, 2012 (GREENSBORO, NC) Jeffrey Segal, CEO and Founder of Medical Justice, today announced research findings which will be published in the peer-reviewed Journal of Medical Internet Research. This research, the first known of its kind, examines whether doctors with positive online reputations on doctor review sites actually deliver better clinical outcomes with better safety records.  The publication is available for download.

To help answer the question, Segal focused on several surgical procedures, backed by data that suggest surgeons who perform more of these procedures have better clinical outcomes and safety records than those who perform fewer procedures. The objective was to determine if surgeon volume, as a proxy for clinical outcomes and patient safety, correlated with a doctor’s online reputation.

In the article titled Online Doctor Reviews: Do They Track Surgeon Volume, A Proxy for Quality of Care?[1], Segal investigated the numerical ratings and comments on nine online review sites of high- and low-volume surgeons for three procedures; lumbar surgery, total knee replacement, and bariatric surgery. “High volume surgeons” and “low volume” surgeons were randomly selected from doctors submitting claims and captured by the Normative Health Information Database, covering multiple payers for more than 25 million insured patients.

The study identified that high volume surgeons could be differentiated from low volume surgeons independently by analyzing (a) total number of numerical ratings per site; (b) total number of text comments per site; (c) proportion of glowing praise / total comments on clinical outcome; and (d) proportion of scathing criticism / total comments on clinical outcome. Even when these features were combined, the effect size, though significant, was still weak.

Segal noted, “Online review sites have generally focused on customer service metrics. For example- how long does it take to get an appointment; does the doctor seem to listen well. While important, patients are also hungry for information related to patient safety and clinical outcomes. To the best of our knowledge, our study is the first to conclude online review sites provide a rich source of data that may be able to track quality of care, though the effect size is weak, and not consistent for all review site metrics. Clearly this evolving field deserves further study.”

The Journal of Medical Internet research is the leading peer-reviewed eHealth/mHealth journal
ranked #1 in Medical Informatics, and #2 in Health Sciences/Health Services Research

[1] Segal J, et. al., Online Doctor Reviews: Do They Track A Proxy for Quality of Care – Surgeon Volume? J Med Internet Res 2012;14(2):e50 , doi:10.2196/jmir.2005

To learn more about online reputation management for doctors, visit eMerit.biz.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

MEDICAL JUSTICE FORGES PARTNERSHIP WITH LOCUMTENENS.COM TO PROTECT PHYSICIANS
Companies team to ensure healthcare workers on temporary assignments are safeguarded from meritless litigation

GREENSBORO, NC – Medical Justice, a membership-based organization dedicated to protecting physicians from meritless litigation, announced yesterday at the Center for Health Transformation national member meeting that the company will provide membership and protective services to LocumTenens.com physicians during any temporary assignment. LocumTenens.com, a free, online physician job board and full-service recruiting agency, works with healthcare facilities and government agencies that need help with their physician staffing needs. The Medical Justice program for LocumTenes.com members will begin January 1, 2011.

“LocumTenens.com is one of the premier locum companies in the United States. They share our vision of transforming this country’s healthcare system by developing proactive solutions to deter meritless litigation. Our services, as a supplement to conventional professional liability insurance, will ensure their physicians can practice medicine with less worry, ultimately providing the highest quality care to patients,” said Jeff Segal, MD, JD, FACS and CEO of Medical Justice.

LocumTenens.com’s physicians will enjoy all the benefits of a Medical Justice membership while participating in their locum tenens placements, including access to proactive services designed to deter frivolous malpractice claims, address unwarranted demands for refunds and provide proven, successful counterclaim strategies to hold proponents of frivolous suits accountable.

“Medical Justice truly understands this critical issue and is an industry pioneer aggressively addressing the interests of doctors within the changing landscape of medical practice. In today’s world, we know that malpractice insurance simply is not enough. This partnership with Medical Justice will add enormous value to our locum tenens physicians as well as our clients employing these physicians, safeguarding their money and reputations from meritless legal threats,” said R. Shane Jackson, president, LocumTenens.com and executive vice president of Jackson Healthcare

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

New Jersey Society of Plastic Surgeons and Medical Justice Announce Partnership

GREENSBORO, NORTH CAROLINA, August 18, 2010 – – The New Jersey Society of Plastic Surgeons (NJSPS) recently announced partnership with Medical Justice®, the organization that protects healthcare professionals against frivolous medical malpractice lawsuits, unwarranted demands for refunds, and online defamation.

Medical Justice focuses exclusively on the healthcare industry.  Their members enjoy significant reductions in frivolous medical malpractice cases and other related medico-legal threats.  The partnership is intended to aid the Society by preemptively mitigating medico-legal risks for members while further enriching and enhancing the Society’s mission.

Effective immediately, Medical Justice will offer NJSPS members preferred price discounts on its full membership, (encompassing all products and services,) based on NJSPS Member participation.  The NJSPS will add Medical Justice as a new member benefit for its members.

The founder/CEO of Medical Justice (and a board-certified neurosurgeon), Dr. Jeffrey Segal comments, “We are delighted to establish this partnership with the NJSPS. There are significant synergies between the two organizations and Medical Justice is honored to deliver our unique and cost-effective medico-legal solutions to New Jersey-based plastic surgeons.”

Dr. Gary Smotrich, President of the NJSPS, expressed “In our continued commitment to deliver solutions consistent with the NJSPS mission to our constituents, we are pleased to be working with Medical Justice in extending affordable medico-legal solutions to our members.”  He added, “Healthcare should be about quality care, about decisions made between physicians and their patients with the goal of providing the best care possible. Medical Justice offers a way to help make that happen.”